Stillwater
by haunted-eternity
Summary: 5th fic in POST JD SERIES. He hasnt touched bourbon since that day. An extension on the talk with Jackson Gibbs. est Jenny/Gibbs. 6.04 spoilers.


They sat at the table in the store by the register, the newspaper from this morning still scattered along the table.

"I noticed you didn't touch the bourbon at the Winslow's home. Thought you liked that stuff" Gibbs father, Jack, said to him. His ice blue eyes staring at his son, head tilting to coax an answer out of him.

"I do, did." Gibbs said, his eyes still staring down at the table, not looking at his father.

"What changed that? An intervention?" Jack questioned, raising his eyebrow.

"Nope" Gibbs said forcefully, hoping he would take that one word answer, but he knew his dad wouldn't take it.

Jack searched his son with his eyes, looking over him and his tired position. He knew it took a lot out of him to come back to his hometown, but something in his boy had changed.

"What changed?" Jack questioned again, his hand reaching for Gibbs' on the table, not touching him, but bringing him back to the present.

Gibbs looked up, his blue eyes shining, he gave his dad a small smile, and shifted in his seat, pulling out his wallet, opening it up and passing it over to him.

"Beautiful, who is she" Jack questioned, his eyes roaming over the picture of his son and the red headed woman standing next to him. He examined it carefully, bringing his glasses up to the bridge of his nose, he saw the woman in detail now.

The red hair was auburn and shoulder length, she was wearing a casual dress of pale green with some sort of embroidery he couldn't make out. She was wearing a high heel shoe, making her as tall as his son. Her body was turned toward Gibbs', her face smiling up at him and her green eyes shining with laughter and her hand a tumbler of brown liquid, he assumed to be bourbon, the moment captured forever. He examined his son in that picture, he had a glass of bourbon in his hand, and was dressed just as casual as his companion, his dark blue button down shirt contrasted with the light, ice blue of his eyes. The khaki shorts gave away it was most likely a recent picture, _probably this spring_, he thought. His body was also turned toward the woman as well, and his free hand was wrapped carefully around her hip, holding her close to him. They were most likely unaware of the picture being taken, too wrapped up in each other to pay attention to anything else.

He looked up at his son, watching him carefully. He noticed the glassy eyes, filling with unshed tears, but knowing his boy will never cry in front of his old man. He also watched as his son had a small smile spread on his face, looking at the picture in his wallet.

"That, is Jennifer Shepard" Gibbs said, nodding to the picture.

"Who is she" Jack said, emphasizing the _is_ in his question.

"We were partners" he said, motioning for his dad to continue looking at the pictures.

"In more ways than one" the older man replied, looking at the next picture. It was Jen standing at the hut in Serbia. Turning towards the next one he looked up at his son and then back down.

It was an older picture, the worn and faded look giving it away. The woman was Jen, he deduced, she was younger though. She had fiery auburn hair, cascading in curls down her shoulders. She had a simple black dress on, the cut was dangerously low. She was smiling up at the camera, eyes full of mischief and love. He assumed his son was the one taking the picture, and looked up at him.

Gibbs flashed back to that day in Marseille, their relationship was new and blossoming. They had just finished their dinner, they had finally had a day off, two other agents had taken the surveillance job that day. It was the first time they had been out of the attic in a week. As much as they loved being together in tight, cramped quarters, they appreciated the freedom they got tonight. Gibbs still had the extra camera, just in case the perps were out with them. But he had other uses for that camera that night, as they got back to the hotel, he had snapped a couple pictures of Jen, when she turned at the clicking of the device, he had taken a few more, and one of them had ended up in his wallet. It was safe to assume they kept that roll of film and printed it off themselves, getting rid of the negatives.

Jack noticed the faraway look on his son's face. He gently grasped his forearm, bringing the younger man back to the present.

As he came back and focused in on his father he saw the knowing smirk, and couldn't help but hang his head, shaking it.

"Tell me about her" his dad said, closing the wallet and handing it back to his son.

"She was a Probie agent. I trained her, we went undercover. We were undercover for a long time, it was a couple years after Shannon and Kelly. It just happened one day, we were in love, inseparable basically. Then, one day she left, woke up to a note on the bed. A Dear John letter, she came back six years later. My boss was moving to a new agency, she came in as my boss. There wasn't supposed to be any off the job, but that rule kind of got tossed out the window after a case we had a while back with a kid. Anyways, she died, not too long ago. She took out four men protecting me, I was back in DC, she was in LA for funeral for a colleague of ours. I took it hard I guess, her death. Stopped drinking bourbon after the funeral, it was our memory, and it didn't feel right anymore. I gave it all up, only have the memories now." He said, releasing a breath and running a hand on top of his wallet, caressing the worn leather.

Jack watched his son talk about Jennifer. When he finished, he squeezed his son's arm in support.

"By the way she looked at you in those pictures, I'd say she was in love with you" Jack said, releasing his hand from Gibbs' forearm.

Gibbs smiled up at his dad and nodded his head, "when we got back together, it was like reliving it all again. The team never knew about our past, they might have suspected. I'm pretty sure Ziva knows, from being partners with Jen for a couple years, but I'd appreciate if this didn't get out."

"Did you not tell them when you got back together the second time?" Jack questioned.

Gibbs shook his head, "No. We're both very private people. Work stayed at work, and our personal life was personal. Our relationship was a need to know basis, lot of people didn't need to know."

Jack shook his head at his boy, getting up from the table and going behind the register, pulling a stack of papers from the shelf behind it and tossed it to Gibbs as he moved back to the table.

"I'd say a lot more people know more than you think" he gestured to the pictures in the posts in the _Washington Post_.

Gibbs went through the papers, one by one, looking at the headlines and the pictures of him and Jen. Sure he knew she was photographed a lot, she was the director of a federal agency, and the first woman one, and of course she would get pictures taken of her. But in most of them, it was the two of them together, usually at functions she had to go to, he played the date/security detail, with the rest of his team as back up. In all the pictures though, it seems like they were taken without them even knowing. He usually had a hand at the small of her back, guiding her to the destination, but in some of the pictures, the casual outing ones, he had a hold of her hand, and usually a coffee or a shopping bag in the other. Her free hand would also be carrying a coffee or a snack they picked up at the coffee bar.

"See boy, even though you never called, I kept track of you. Luck for me you dated such a high profile woman, or else I would never have gotten to see you, but it was nice to know my boy was getting out there again. It was nice seeing you the way you were with Shannon" Jack said, taking in the pictures in the papers with his son.

Gibbs shuffled all the papers back together in a neat pile and stood up, putting his wallet back in his pocket. His dad stood up too, and placed the papers back underneath the shelf.

Gibbs' gut sensed his team was around, and looked out the window, his dad following his line of sight.

The elder man sat back down in his chair, "you know son, I really do miss you."

Gibbs smiled at his father and sat back down, he reached out his hand and carefully covered his dad's hands that rested atop the table, "I missed you too dad" he said.

As the door opened and McGee and Ziva came in Gibbs released his dad's hands, pulling his back to his side and smiled once more at his dad, catching the glimmer of happiness shining in the icy blue eyes staring at Ziva. He turned towards the two agents, listening in, hoping to find their next clue, knowing his eyes were the carbon copies of his father's at the moment.

End.


End file.
